However, Badrinathan argued that attributing the Republican defeat solely to inflation and high oil prices would be an oversimplification.
“We found that the issues that motivate Indian Americans are actually the same issues that motivate general Americans. They talk about jobs, the economy, cost of living. It’s possible that this time, H-1B, discrimination, and those sorts of issues played a slightly larger role,” she said.
Anti-India sentiment featured prominently in the election campaign in Texas, the state with the second-largest Indian-American population in the US. Remarks by Republican leader Bo French targeting University of Texas students triggered widespread outrage across party lines.
“It’s hard to say if the Bo French tweet alone pushed people to vote a certain way, as opposed to what came with it: changes around actual immigration policies, the rhetoric around it, and changes in the economy making people’s lives harder. So, yes, it probably played a part,” Badrinathan said.
She said Indian Americans generally held negative views of specific Trump administration policies on immigration, tariffs and H-1B visas.
Badrinathan declined to speculate on the policies Democrats were likely to pursue towards India after securing control of both the US House of Representatives and the Senate.
“It’s a new dawn. It’s really hard to say whether the majority that the Democrats now hold in the House and Senate as well as multiple state legislatures is going to translate to policy or whether it’s going to lead to gridlock,” she said.
“It’s also hard to say whether the discourse is going to change because establishment Democrats have now seemingly taken a little bit of a backseat to let in some space for newcomers across states,” she said, referring to the number of Democratic Socialists of America candidates who won in the midterm elections.
Badrinathan said that despite tough immigration policies and discrimination against Indians, interest in studying in the US remained high.
“But it seems like even despite the perception that there is discrimination and one in two people saying they do experience some form of discrimination, mostly on the basis of skin colour, exit from the US is not happening. People are still encouraged to come to the US to both work and to study,” Badrinathan said.
(With inputs from PTI)
Source: www.newindianexpress.com
